Reflection #10

The nature of terrorism is designed to be simultaneously covert and incendiary; terrorists seek to instill fear and suspicion while maintaining their personal obscurity. It is this covert tendency that makes the concept of terrorism so foreboding. As "the other side," we cannot cling to the solidity of an opposing ideology, or the face of an oppressive dictator, or the geographical confines of a region and classify them as aggressors. When it comes to terrorism and/or violent extremism, uncertainty is the only guarantee. The enemy is faceless, nameless, nation-less. It is a force that constantly defies our predictions and avoids normal means of battle. Our discussion in class on Thursday reminded me of a book I read over the summer, American Taliban. Fictitious John Jude Parish (strikingly similar to real-life John Walker Lindh, the 29-year-old American citizen who was captured in 2001 in Afghanistan and is currently serving time in prison because of his affiliation with Al-Qaeda) is a teenage male who defers admission to Brown University and ultimately moves to Pakistan where he joins the Taliban. Our discussion also fit perfectly with the final showcase of the Human Rights Film Series, The Oath, which describes the lives of Salim Hamdan and "Abu Jandal", two men affiliated with Al-Qaeda. Jandal was Osama bin Laden's bodyguard and recruiter, who hired his brother-in-law, Hamdan, as a driver. Hamdan never took the "oath", the requirement for admittance to Al-Qaeda. Jandal did. Hamdan was imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay for seven years and was the first detainee to undergo the military tribunals. Jandal was imprisoned for two years and was released after attending "The Dialogue", a reformatory program that seeks to show former jihadi the error of their ways. These works, both fictitious and real, force me to question the exact parameters of our definition of terrorist, extremist, rebel, etc. It is just as difficult to categorize terrorists as it is to define the institution itself, which makes it all the more tenable.